Human no More
by VampireHunterSephiroth200
Summary: In the wake of the Brood Wars, how far will James Raynor go to avenge his friends? Please be open-minded, though this is far from being my first fanfic, it's my first StarCraft fanfic...
1. Kerrigan

Disclaimer: I don't own StarCraft, never have, never will... Thank you...

_Come to me, my child... _"No..." she cried. She thought back to him, the first man to ever truly love her. "Jim... Where are you...?" she sobbed. _He has abandoned you... He and all others like him... You never meant anything to him..._ "That's not true! He loves me...!" she wanted to close her ears, close her eyes, close her mind, but this thing just wouldn't leave her alone. _Sarah Kerrigan..._ "No! Leave me alone!!! Go away!!!" she growled. She pushed at this invading presence with her mind, desperate to get away from it. In her dreams she ran from this invader's voice and presence. Always to him. She cried to him, "Help me, Jim, please!" The presence blocked his voice from her and put words in his mouth. Words of rejection, words of spite. She didn't believe these words at first knowing that this thing was in her mind and was trying to hurt her. Trying to break her and turn her into a monster. "I don't believe you! Why are you doing this to me!?! Just go away!!! I only want to go back to him!!!" she yelled in frustration. _That isn't what you really want... What you truly desire is revenge for those that have betrayed you..._ "Shut up!" she yelled. She didn''t want anything to do with this thing.

Outside the psionic waves eminating from her rage had sent the nearby zerglings and hydralisks into a psychotic frenzy. They couldn't hear the commands of their cerebrates coming through the nearby overlords. The overmind would've been frustrated at this but it amused him how powerful this creature was. "My successor... My daughter..." he cooed lovingly. "Master is this thing really so important? Could we not just take a Protoss directly?" Zasz asked. "Idiot, we cannot simply take one... They are too strong for our current state..." Daggoth lectured. The overmind listened with ill content as his top 2 cerebrates began to argue. "Enough!!!" he shouted. Hearing their master's shout the 2 stopped argued immediately. The next psionic wave was her last but the most powerful. It sent a shudder throughout the entire brood. "Is she finally finished struggling?" Zasz asked cautiously. "Yes she is... She indeed put up a noble fight to the end, but she is mine now..." the overmind said returning to his gentle tone.

_Welcome to your new life, my child... Now awaken...!_ She came out of her crysalis changed. "Dear god, Sarah, what have they done to you?" she heard her former love's voice ask. He had come after all. "You mean what have they done FOR me..." she believed to correct. She could sense the hurt in him. He was dying inside all over again. It stirred that loving feeling she still held for him, but that feeling was nothing but an echo of what was left of her human side. "Human no more..." she muttered as she sent her minions to make waste of his base.


	2. Raynor

It was the same nightmare over and over. No matter how many times he closed his eyes to sleep. Even the alcohol stopped soothing the pain. After spending a year in the bottle he was sobering up. His troops were losing faith, this latest hunt was supposed to renew that interest. He encountered her, the source of his pain. He fought her tooth and nail, so to speak, and she was crumbled before him. He couldn't finish her though. No matter how hard he tried she reminded him too much of the woman he once loved. He walked away.

Back in the bottle a month later. It didn't help, it never did. He felt a familiar presence come up behind him. "It's not working anymore is it?" the presence asked. "I had the chance and I couldn't do it, Zeratul... If Tassadar and Fenix were still alive they'd have died of shame..." he told Zeratul disgutedly. Not at Zeratul, the dark templar had done nothing to award the commander his disgust. James Raynor was disgusted at himself. "A year has passed since we both vowed vengeance on that foul demon who was once your love..." the dark templar started. "Don't remind me!" Raynor almost cried, slamming his head on the counter, "That's the reason I can't kill her... Everytime I look at her I see that woman, even though she's dead!" "It is risky, but a way to defeat her has been found..." Zeratul told him. "A way?" Raynor asked. "Indeed, that way is you..." Zeratul told him, "Though not as you presently are..." "I don't understand..." the human replied. Zeratul explained it to him.

A few weeks later Raynor stood at the base of an empty stasis cell. "Are you sure of this?" Artanis asked him, "You may not remember being human when you wake up..." "I don't care... I'm not gonna' waller in my own filth wishing things had been different... I'm not gonna' bring any more shame to Tassadar or Fenix's memories..." he replied. The Protoss scientists and doctors had already removed his psionic dampeners, which held in check his long dormat potential. He entered the stasis cell. The green fluid filled the tank fast and he went into his suspended animation slumber. It would be the last time he would close his eyes as a human.

Awakening was rather abrupt. His psionic power had grown so much in so little time. It had only been around another 3 months and he was already a rival to the dreaded Queen of Blades. "How do you feel, Raynor?" Zeratul asked. Raynor looked at him softly, his once brown eyes now glowed a bright blue color. "I am ready for the training to commence, Master Zeratul..." he replied. Raynor took a look at his old vulture bike, he ran his hand over it. Memories flooded back to him, memories of when he was human, of Acturus Mengsk's betrayal, of Tassadar's death, of Fenix's death, of her. As soon as he saw her in his mind, he discarded the memories. He would avenge her, but not before avenging Fenix and Tassadar. "I will keep little of my human self... But you, old friend, shall be one of them..." he told the bike. "Raynor, it is time for your Templar and Dark Templar training to commence..." Zeratul instructed him. "To hear is to obey, Master Zeratul..." he replied. "Human no more..." he muttered.


	3. Conflict

Conflict. The Koprulu Sector had been locked in conflict for so long it seemed that no one could remember a time when things were peaceful. A time before the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan, or the new face on the battlefeild, Inquisitor Raynor. He was kind to his human and Protoss comrades, as his old self had been, but was a savage and brutal creature on the battlefeild. Mengsk's forces feared his name now. Raynor directed his fury upon the Zerg first and foremost. Soon the Zerg was pushed back to Char, not just by him, but also by the renewed faith that victory was indeed attainible against the Zerg. Many of Mengsk's former comrades had turned on him, sided with Inquisitor Raynor and his Protoss comrades as they rallied for an all out, all-or-nothing assault on Char.

Kerrigan prepared her brood for the coming conflict. Spawning herself an entire swarm. With renewed vigor, though, even against greater numbers, the human and Protoss alliance sped right through her space forces as though they were no more than a speed bump. Her ground forces met the same fate. Raynor had bolted ahead of the other warriors on his side and cut his way to the sole-survivng cerebrate. For the first time in the poor creature's life it felt fear and was finally able to understand the sanctity of life. Too little, too late. Though it pleaded with him for mercy, he only laughed grimly at it as he shredded the giant wormlike creature to ruins. Without the cerebrate, the Zerg would fight no more. "Easy pickings for the rest..." he thought, "Now where is this Queen of Blades...?"

He marched through the infested command center, dragging one of his warp blades along the tendril covered walls. He listened to the pathetic creature's wailing as he did. This disgusting and vile monstrosity that had corrupted heaven only knows how many good people. Finally he arrived in the wicked "Queen's" throne room. She held her hand up to have her remaining minions attack. The Hunter-Killer Hydralisk spat it's toxin at him, but he had summoned an illusion and moved behind it. Slash! A clean cut at it's torso, and the creature died. The Devouring Ones were next. The larger-than-usual zerglings were fast, but not nearly fast enough. Before long he had sliced both of them. "You're out of minions, Queen of Blades..." he told her. "What did you do to yourself, Jim?" she asked in a sigh. "There is no more James Raynor, just as there is no more Sarah Kerrigan..." he replied, "I, like you, am human no more... However, unlike you, I did not become a demon... I became a Protoss..." She huffed, he had become a Protoss, and just like all Protoss he like to hear himself talk. "Come at me Queen of Blades! Come meet your end!!!" he challenged. No more words were exchanged, they fought tooth and nail again. Only this time, when she would fall it would be for the last time.

He knocked her off balance and moved in for the finishing strike, she stumbled so as to miss recieving any critical damage that would be fatal. Although his attack had missed any vital organs, it had taken off her spines on that side and gave her a nasty gash just under her arm. His back was turned to her, she would kill him for that insult. She turned and attempted to use her other set of spines, only to have them cut from her as well. The loss of the toxic green blood that now flowed through her veins and the fact that her mind was crumbling to his made her increasingly reackless. She tried one final charge. In that charge she saw her life flash before her eyes. It paused on that fateful moment when they shared a night together, long ago when they were both human. "Jim..." she choked, "I'm sorry..." "I'm sorry, too... Sorry it came to this..." he replied. She crumbled to the ground. He couldn't bear the sight of her for long, he used pyrokenisis to set her body aflame and calmly walked out. As he did, he set that wretched building to blow sky-high. "You're next, Acturus Mengsk..." he thought with a dangerous gleam in his now glowing blue eyes.


	4. Mengsk

Mengsk walked into his office. "Hold all my calls, I won't be seein' anyone today, Ms. Willson..." he instructed his secretary. "Yes, Mr. Mengsk..." she replied. An unannounced visitor appeared at her desk and surprised her. "I'm here to see Mengsk..." he told her. "Who are you? If you have an appointment, you'll have to reschedule... Mr. Mengsk is not seeing anyone today..." she politely informed him, trying her best not to tremble in fear. "You may relax, Ms. Willson, I'm not here for you..." he told her as he approched the door. "I told you Mr. Mengsk is not seeing anyone!" she shouted as she jumped out of her chair. An unseen force pushed her back in it. "Se-security!" she screamed. No one would answer. The entire palace had been captured. The guards were stripped of their weapons by Raiders soldiers and Dark Templars.

Locked, he had to do it the hard way. Slash! Slash! He pushed the door open with more-than-sufficient force. "Honostly Jim, don't you ever knock?" Acturus sighed doing his paperwork as if it were nothing. "You cannot simply write me off this time, Mengsk! You know damn well why I have come!" he shouted. The windows of the office shattered from the psionic waves of his rage. Raynor would make Mengsk's death as painful as possible. He didn't call out his warp blades or reach for the gun holstered on his back. He used his fists. Until Mengsk was hardly recognizible. Then he held the pathetic wretch out of the window of his luxurious office 30 stories off the ground. "How many? How many good men and women died fighting honorable fights to the bitter end, believing in that garbage you have them believing?" Raynor shouted. "Jim, be reasonable..." Acturus choked. "The time for reason has passed, and I am no longer James Raynor..." he told the corrupt man he once worked for as a human. "I will see you in hell, Mengsk..." Raynor cursed and let Acturus Mengsk drop.

The people had thought that Mengsk would be a hero emperor and that they would be free under his reign, but he had been a tyrant. With him dethroned, the people cheered and even danced upon his grave. The coming years in the Koprulu Sector were peaceful. A united government was established between the Protoss and the humans. As for Inquisitor Raynor, he disappeared into the vast darkness of space, never to be heard or seen from again. Every once in a while though, on the planet Aier where there was a monument to the heroes that fell in that bloody war a bouquet of wild flowers would appear under the dedication "Lt. Sarah Kerrigan; remembered as the human hero and not as the zerg demon...". Some say that it's CMDR James Raynor's spirit who's name is regrettibly not on the monument. Others say it was another admirer. Still there are others who think that it's the spirit of Acturus Mengsk, trapped in limbo, doomed to never pass on without her forgiveness.


End file.
